Measures are the subject of this unusual book, in which Robert Tavernor offers a fascinating account of the various measuring systems that human beings have devised over two millennia. Tavernor urges us to look beyond the notion that measuring is strictly a scientific activity, divorced from human concerns. Instead, he sets measuring in cultural context, focusing on key moments in art, sculpture, architecture, philosophy, and the development of scientific thought to show how deeply they are connected to human experience and history.

"At the book's heart is the changeover from ancient methods of measurement based like Smoot on the human body, to the metric system, derived from a more 'scientific' measurement of the earth's dimensions.... It's a story that Tavernor tells well, with an acute awareness of the ironies and human failings it contains."—Sunday Times (London)